Judge Gives Clerk's Killer Life In Prison Jury Recommendation Was Death Sentence

August 14, 1985|By Roger Roy of The Sentinel Staff

A judge Tuesday overruled a jury's recommendation to electrocute Jay Vernon Moss, who was convicted of the September 1983 abduction and murder of Orange County convenience store clerk Shirley Gerentine.

Orange Circuit Judge Michael Cycmanick gave Moss, 27, the only other sentence Florida law allows for first-degree murder -- life in prison with no chance of release for 25 years.

The sentence angered Gerentine's husband and children, who were in the courtroom.

''This is going to come as a great disappointment, I know, to some of you,'' Cycmanick said before announcing the sentence.

Cycmanick told Gerentine's family he wanted to explain why a higher court would overturn a death sentence against Moss.

By the time he finished 30 minutes later, the Gerentine family had left the courtroom.

''I just don't understand,'' said the victim's son, Michael Gerentine, 27. ''He was found guilty. The jury recommended the death penalty. All I can say is the judicial system does not work.''

Shirley Gerentine, 43, was abducted from the store where she worked on State Road 436 east of Orlando about 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 14, 1983. Her body was found in a field 2 miles from the store early the next morning. She had been stabbed three times.

Moss, a construction worker, and a friend, Joe Haden Johnson, 27, were arrested at a bar a few hours after Gerentine's disappearance.

Inside Moss' truck, sheriff's investigators found a knife with human blood, Gerentine's wedding rings, and a spot of blood that was the same type as Gerentine's. Tire tracks found near her body also matched the tires on Moss' truck, an expert testified.

Johnson pleaded guilty to the murder in October. During Moss' trial, he denied any involvement in the crime and said he pleaded guilty because he was afraid prosecutors would used false testimony to put him in the electric chair. Johnson is serving a life sentence.

Moss, who did not testify during his May trial, was convicted of first- degree murder, kidnapping and robbery. The jury recommended by a 7 to 5 vote that he be sentenced to die in the electric chair.

Assistant State Attorney Ray Sharpe argued Tuesday for the death penalty. Sharpe said Moss deserved to die for the killing because Gerentine was murdered during a robbery, it was done to eliminate a witness, it was especially cruel and it was done for money.

But defense attorney James Valerino argued that Moss should get a sentence no more severe than Johnson's and said there was no evidence that Moss stabbed Gerentine.

Cycmanick said a death sentence for Moss would be overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.

He said there was no evidence the murder was ''cold and calculated,'' or that it was done to eliminate a witness. He said there was also not enough evidence that the murder was particularly heinous or cruel.

''It would have been very easy for me to just announce a death sentence today and let the Supreme Court sort it out,'' Cycmanick said. ''That probably would have been the popular thing to do.''